Organized sports are not enough to keep kids in shape: study

Washington: Parents, take note! It is essential to allow children to play and play with their friends in the neighborhood for their physical well-being, say scientists who have found that organized sports are not enough for children to stay in shape. Researchers at Rice University in the United States studied data collected from 100 children aged 10 to 17 at home, to confirm their hypothesis that these activities are sufficient to keep children fit.

The data, published in the Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, proved the opposite. The problem lies in the amount of activity that is part of organized diets, said Laura Kabiri, a sports medicine teacher at Rice University.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), children should do about an hour of mostly aerobic activity a day, but other studies have shown that children who play sports other than elites do not actually than 20 to 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity during practice.

The researchers decided to quantify it with the help of statistics collected by Kabiri on home-schooled children and adolescents as a graduate student and postdoctoral researcher at Texas Woman's University.

"We badume – and I think parents do it as well – that children enrolled in an organized sport or physical activity practice the activity they need to maintain good body composition, good cardiorespiratory fitness and their muscular development, "Kabiri said.

"We found that this was not the case.The mere fact of ticking the box and enrolling them in an activity does not necessarily mean that they meet the requirements necessary to stay healthy," he said. she said. Researchers suspect that the same is true for public school students in the general clbades of physical education, where much of the time is spent on clbadroom organization.

"When you only have 50 minutes, it's very easy for half or more of that time to get in, out and work," Kabiri said. The researchers said it would be wise for parents to give their children more time every day for unstructured physical activity.

"Parents know that if they attend activities and do not see their children breathing and sweating profusely, they are not doing enough exercise," Kabiri said. "So there should be more opportunities for unstructured activities, take your children out and let them run, play with the neighborhood kids and ride a motorbike," he said. added.